A few years before Title IX passed, Lin Dunn had just earned a master’s degree in physical education from Tennessee after completing her bachelor’s degree at UT Martin. As a tennis and volleyball player in college, Dunn naturally gravitated toward coaching women’s sports.
Her true love was basketball, but in the 1960s, UT Martin did not have a women’s team. This was not a shock to Dunn, but more of a frustration. An Alabama native, Dunn was all too familiar with the discrepancies between men’s and women’s sports. When I was in high school, interscholastic sports activities for girls were prohibited.
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When Dunn graduated from Tennessee, discussion of Title IX legislation had only recently begun. Law or no law, Dunn had her sights set on being an educator and trainer. So, in 1970, she took her first job: physical education instructor, supervisor of the men’s football and basketball cheerleaders, and volunteer coach of the women’s volleyball, basketball and tennis teams at Austin Peay.
Dunn would often stay at the athletic facility hours after everyone else had left just to search the men’s locker room for old gear that no one wanted anymore. She wore them worn pinnies and glued numbers on them so the women could have some kind of jumper. And Dunn often spent his own money, which didn’t go far, to buy uniforms or extra gear.
“I wanted to create opportunities for girls and women in college that I didn’t have,” Dunn said. “I wanted them to have the opportunity to compete in sports, but there were very few resources. My first job was ridiculous with what little we had. We just didn’t have access to the facilities, it was really bad. So it was a constant battle.”
Two years after working at Austin Peay, Title IX passed, but in 1972 that didn’t mean much for women’s sports. The legislation was originally about girls and women having equal opportunities in the classroom.
While Title IX compliance for sports was not mandated until 1978, Dunn saw small changes begin to occur soon after the law was originally passed. However, Dunn doesn’t think the law would have been passed in 1972 if Congress and President Richard Nixon had understood the impact it would have had on gender equality in sports.
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“I don’t think they realized when they signed it, and then when Nixon signed it, what they were signing,” Dunn said. “It looks really good when you read it. It talks about discrimination and fairness and those 37 words and how powerful they are. I’m not sure they had any idea that it could be expanded to include extracurricular activities like sports, which happen from K through college, so no, I guess they had no idea.”
After coaching the Austin Peay women’s basketball team for four winning seasons, Dunn left in 1977 and became a women’s basketball, tennis and volleyball coach at Ole Miss. The job change allowed Dunn to see the influence of Title IX.
Instead of awarding only a few partial scholarships, Dunn was able to award a few full scholarships. Colleges began providing academic advisors for women’s teams. Dunn even remembers the first time his teams were provided with a training table.
While it was heartwarming to see these changes begin to occur, Dunn also wondered why women didn’t need these things before Title IX, but men did.
He was lucky to grow up with a family that encouraged those questions. Dunn’s mother played basketball in the early 20th century, when the court was divided into three parts and players could only dribble. His father ran track at Vanderbilt. Dunn and his brother had the same opportunities and motivation as the boys when it came to education and sports.
Dunn’s case was a rarity at the time. The family discouraged many of their counterparts from participating in athletics, as sports were often seen as detrimental to womanhood. Historically, society considered sports too aggressive and competitive for women; they were not like a lady. These thoughts made it easy for schools and programs to justify not offering opportunities to girls who were interested in sports or putting a significant amount of money into girls’ athletics.
When Dunn got to high school, she was introduced to a physical educator, Noona Kennard, who gave the girls the opportunity to compete in intramural sports during gym class. Being introduced to this competition, even at the lowest level, allowed Dunn and her classmates to understand what it was like to be on a team. Kennard also enforced that it was okay for a girl to love sports and want to compete.
A couple of years later, Dunn’s family moved to Tennessee, where he would finish high school. There he met Buddy Viniard, who influenced his desire to train. Viniard was tough and demanding. He wanted discipline and attention to detail. She wanted young women to play the way young men were taught to play: with a competitive edge and a determination to win and improve.
While Dunn is grateful for the small opportunities she was given, it didn’t lessen the bitterness she felt when she saw how the kids had a hard time.
“It wasn’t just college, it was high school, high school, every area of women’s sports before Title IX was really lame, would be the word,” Dunn said. “Non-existent in some cases, sporadic, underfunded, no funds at all. Of course, I personally played sports before Title IX passed, and I know how few opportunities I had. So it was not good. In many cases, middle school, high school, and college programs provided plenty of opportunities for kids to participate in several different sports. And in most cases there was no opportunity for girls to participate and there were certainly no scholarships at the university.
“I think that was the main thing that, in my mind, when I was preparing to go to college, there were no scholarships. There were all kinds of athletic scholarships for boys. In the universities there were, I don’t know, 6, 7, 8, ten sports, but none for women. There was a significant discrepancy.”
When Dunn arrived at UT Martin, he admits he was “a pain in everyone’s ass” and continued everywhere he went. She refused to settle for little to no opportunity, resources, or funding for women’s sports. His career has been and always has been as much the fight for equality as it is training.
Dunn coached Ole Miss to a 25-15 record in 1977, then went to Miami and led the Hurricanes to their first postseason appearance in 1981 as Florida Coach of the Year. She finished her college coaching career with a nine-year stint at Purdue, where she was the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1989 and 1991. Dunn coached the Boilermakers to two Sweet 16 appearances, one Elite Eight appearance and one career in Final Four. But in 1996, Dunn was fired after disputes with Purdue’s athletic director, recruiting violations, and equal pay and opportunity issues.
Fighting for that continued equality may have cost Dunn his job, but that would never be a regret. One thing about Dunn, she was never going to sit back and wait for the right thing to be done.
“People won’t always do it out of the goodness of their hearts. They can do a little or they can do a part,” Dunn said. “But historically, there hasn’t been a constant, ‘hey, this is how we’re going to treat our girls. We’re going to treat him like we treat our boys. The opportunities that we are giving our boys are going to be given to our girls. That hasn’t really flown, I guess you could say, it hasn’t been accepted. And it’s gotten better, there’s no doubt in my mind, it’s gotten better. But we are not yet fully compliant with Title IX. There are still many colleges, universities, and high schools where girls don’t get the gym until all the boys’ teams have finished using it. And it’s still not how it should be.”
Decades later, Dunn hasn’t given up the fight. After decades of coaching and managerial positions in the WNBA, she still views Title IX through the same lens. While opportunities for girls’ and women’s sports have expanded behind Dunn’s belief, equal pay and distribution of funds have become larger issues.
Dunn believes that the current fight is about investing the right amount of time and money in women’s sports. She has witnessed the success of the US Women’s National Soccer Team and the Women’s Olympic Basketball Team. That success stems from the investment in that equipment. Dunn knows that when female athletes are given the same resources as men, they can be just as or even more successful.
Dunn has witnessed a generational change in women’s sports, from yearning to play basketball as a child when the law disallowed it to seeing little boys wearing a Kelsey Mitchell jersey at Indiana Fever games.
Dunn can’t help but be excited about the trajectory of women’s sports at all levels. There is no place for satisfaction. Even today, Title IX lawsuits are being filed. Dunn recently read about the state of San Diego being sued for unequal distribution of sports funds. He wonders how many other institutions are putting themselves in a position to be sued.
“I firmly believe that we cannot relax,” Dunn said. “We cannot take for granted what we have and what we have achieved. And we cannot be passive about the progress we have made. Because no matter how hard we’ve worked to get it, it can be taken away in a minute. legislation can be repealed, things can be changed. And so I think we have to be diligent about Title IX and preserve it, treasure it and enforce it.”
